Fast Company magazine selected global design firm HOK as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. The list honors businesses making a significant impact on both industry and culture. Fast Company’s editors and writers sought out businesses across 35 industries and every region, as well as judged nominations received through an application process.

The accolade recognizes HOK’s engineering team, which developed a parametric modeling and optimization tool called HOK STREAM™ that dramatically speeds up the design process. This tool combines several modeling and structural analysis programs and processes to generate a single, streamlined solution for optimizing a structure across multiple disciplines and based on expertise specific to that project type.

“We’re committed to continually pursuing innovative ways to advance our design processes and the solutions we create for cities, communities and people,” said Margaret McDonald, LEED AP, senior principal for HOK’s St. Louis practice. “Fast Company’s recognition of HOK’s commitment to innovation through the development of our proprietary design tool STREAM is a nod to the culture we’ve worked hard to build. It’s a culture where exploration and discovery are encouraged and where creativity is leveraged to benefit our clients.”

Excerpted from Fast Company:

A few years ago, HOK’s in-house structural engineers developed a proprietary design tool called HOK STREAM, which uses parametric model and structural analysis to vet architectural ideas and quickly gauge whether they can feasibly be built. The process has allowed HOK to design “buildings thought unbuildable,” as the firm describes it. Case in point: For the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, HOK designed two 900-foot-long, translucent canopies over a terminal to shield passengers from inclement weather. STREAM allowed the six-person design team to generate more than 500 design options, then whittle down the list, in just three weeks. A conventional design process would’ve required 100 people working for three months. The first canopy was completed in 2018.

Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies issue (March-April 2019) is now available online at https://www.fastcompany.com/MIC and will be on newsstands beginning February 27th.

HOK designs buildings and spaces that respond to the needs of people and the environment. HOK designers are rooted in technical excellence, driven by imagination and focused on a solitary goal: to deliver solutions that inspire clients and communities.

12-story building will complement culture and diversity of city’s vibrant Crossroads Art District.

The Crossroads Arts District, known for its galleries, boutiques and signature restaurants, will soon be home to one of Kansas City’s marquee urban residences. Developers Altus Properties and Copaken Brooks recently broke ground on ARTerra, a 126-unit residential tower designed to reflect the creativity and individuality of the Crossroads. HOK is leading the architectural design for ARTerra-the Crossroads’ first-ever apartment high-rise. JE Dunn is serving as contractor.

When it opens in late 2018, ARTerra will total more than 200,000 square feet, with 126 units consisting of a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Located at 21st and Wyandotte, ARTerra features design elements that will make the building immediately recognizable both within the neighborhood and beyond. A social lounge on ARTerra’s rooftop offers residents and guests unobstructed views of downtown Kansas City and surrounding districts. At night, the glass lounge glows like a lantern, distinguishing ARTerra within the cityscape.

At street level, ARTerra’s glass-walled lobby and 2,000 square feet of retail space serve as a counterbalance to the rooftop lounge and engagement point for residents, guests and passersby. An outdoor pool and a terrace on the roof of ARTerra’s attached parking garage provide views of historic Union Station and the National World War I Memorial and Museum.

“We wanted ARTerra to respond to both the city skyline and the neighborhood streets,” said Jonathan Wirth, senior project designer at HOK’s St. Louis studio. “We anchored the building’s amenities-pool, retail spaces, lobby-to engage Wyandotte Street to fit within the Crossroads’ urban fabric, while the social lounge hovers above as a beacon in the Kansas City skyline.”
Staggered balconies create a playful dappled pattern along ARTerra’s north facade. Perforated and solid metal panels provide the building’s east and west exteriors with a sleek, varied texture.

“HOK is thrilled to be working on this transformative project just a few steps from our office,” said Chris DeVolder, managing principal of HOK’s Kansas City studio. “Altus and Copaken Brooks have an exciting vision for the Crossroads District, and we are proud to be helping them bring that vision to life.”

“HOK’s design team consistently delivers great design with great value for our projects,” added Josh Udelhofen, Altus’ managing director of development. “Their attention to detail on unit design and amenities actually improved our pro-forma projections while creating what will certainly be a signature building within the Crossroads District”

ARTerra is the first building in Kansas City to be built using the Prescient(r) structural system, a prefabricated steel framing structure that reduces framing time and costs.

HOK is a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm. Through a network of 23 offices worldwide, including St. Louis and Kansas City, HOK provides design excellence and innovation to create places that enrich people’s lives and help clients succeed. DesignIntelligence consistently ranks HOK as a leader in sustainable, high-performance design and technology innovation.

They come from Washington University in St. Louis, Maryville University, University of Illinois, Tuskegee University, Kansas State University, University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University and Louisiana State University. Their shared passions include a certain interlocking toy from Denmark and an admiration for cutting edge design. They are HOK in St. Louis’ 2017 interns, and they represent the biggest, most diverse class the studio has hosted in recent memory.

There’s the college football player, the Army veteran who worked on construction projects in Afghanistan and the business architect who left corporate work to pursue her passion for interior design.

“It’s amazing when you meet these interns and discover their varied backgrounds and then see how quickly they’ve gelled as a team—exceeding expectations,” says Charlie Lutz, head of the internship committee for HOK’s St. Louis practice.

And while this year’s class of 11 interns represents many cultures, Lutz says his committee chose each student based on just one: HOK’s.

“At all 23 of our global offices, we’re interested in not only the best and brightest students but also how they’ll fit in with the design culture of each studio,” says Lutz.

Since beginning their internship in late May, the students have worked alongside HOK’s designers on client projects, participated in weekly coffee talks with practice leaders and designed an intern project. This year’s intern project has the students working with the Saint Louis Zoo on conceptual designs for a space that could benefit from a renovation due to aging infrastructure.

Construction on last summer’s internship project, the Catalyst Innovation Lab for the St. Louis Arts & Education Council, is slated to begin this month.

“The Arts & Education Council was so impressed with the concept our interns developed that it greatly expanded the size and presence of the project, moving it from the interior of the building to a larger location on the street front,” says Lutz. “That’s a great example of why I think HOK’s internship program stands out. Not only are our interns integral to the the larger design studio, they also get to lead their own project. They work directly for a client and often see their work become reality.”

For more information on HOK’s paid internship programs across our network of 23 international offices (and how to apply), check out our internship page. Now, meet the 2017 interns of HOK’s St. Louis studio.

HOK, which led the overall programming for the Lauritzen Outpatient Center, guided the medical planning and layout of the clinical spaces. RDG provided architectural, interior design and medical documentation.

As part of the planning process, the two firms gathered input from 150 medical and administrative personnel at Nebraska Medicine’s outpatient facilities in Omaha. During a planning workshop, clinical teams created mock-up exam and operating rooms and studied patient flows. The design team used this information to guide planning discussions and develop a final building layout that breaks down departmental silos and creates adjacencies that enable clinicians to provide the best possible patient care.

“Our team made every decision through a filter of creating the optimal experience for Nebraska Medicine patients,” said Kerry Cheung, AIA, senior medical planner at HOK. “For example, we located the orthopedic clinic, rehab therapies and radiology department together to increase collaboration among clinicians and to create a one-stop-shop for patients. Exam rooms are intuitively arranged in pods according to specialties.”

“It was an incredibly thoughtful process to unify Nebraska Medicine personnel, designers and the building team in a single vision devoted to creating the best patient experience,” added Nate Gieselman, RDG architect and project manager. “This also streamlined the planning process, which normally would have taken four years but only took two-and-a half years.”

The design features an abundance of natural light with fritted windows and sunscreens that moderate heat load while brightening waiting areas and public spaces on all four floors. A prominent central stairway is bathed in light, promoting health and well-being. Clear wayfinding and a highly efficient layout help reduce wait times and provide easy access to ambulatory services.

The first floor unites related services including the orthopedic clinic, radiology department and an outpatient pharmacy. It also features a rehabilitation gym for the center’s sports medicine practice.

The second floor houses the Fritch Surgery Center, which comprises 10 operating rooms and 40 pre- and post-operation rooms. The surgery center waiting area includes private consultation rooms for doctors and families. Work is underway to create a skywalk connecting the second floor to Nebraska Medicine’s Truhlsen Eye Institute next door.

Specialized clinics occupying the third floor of the building include services for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Audiology, Allergy, General Surgery Clinic, Trauma Clinic, Plastics Clinic, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Facial Prosthetics and Urology Surgery. The fourth floor houses orthopedics faculty and research and telemedicine staff.

“There are so many talented healthcare professionals under one roof at the Lauritzen Outpatient Center,” said Jared Long, ENT clinic manager. “It has been fun to watch the teams grow into the new space and lean on each other to create the optimal patient experience. Care coordination has been streamlined. For example, a patient arrives in the General Surgery Clinic for a consult, but really needs to see an ENT specialist. When appropriate, nurses and providers have partnered together across specialties—located on the same floor—to work these patients into the schedule, preventing them from having to return a different day.”

The team designed the center to facilitate ease of registration with self-check-in kiosks and online registration, which will be implemented in the future. The plan also allows for personal check-ins with outpatient healthcare staff.

“We struck a balance between the efficiency of online check-ins and providing a more personal touch,” said Cheung. “This idea borrows from today’s airport experience, where you can check in online or at the ticket counter.”

The Lauritzen Outpatient Center is named for the family of Bruce Lauritzen, chairman of First National of Nebraska and the lead financial donor for the project. The surgery center’s name acknowledges a capital gift from Dr. Charles Fritch and his wife, Judy.

The University of Missouri¬-St. Louis has unveiled its College of Optometry’s new $17 million Patient Care Center on the South Campus. Designed by HOK, the two-story, 48,000-sq.-ft. building provides a space for clinical education and research for the college as well as comprehensive eye and vision care for the community.

“It’s so good to see this longtime dream of the College of Optometry’s finally complete,” said Larry Davis, dean of the college.

The Patient Care Center replaces the University Eye Center located in UMSL’s Marillac Hall, a building originally designed as a residence hall for nuns. The new facility is located along Natural Bridge Road, adjacent to the UMSL South MetroLink station. It has four service areas for adult eye care, pediatric eye care, contact lens eye care and primary healthcare. The two-story atrium with a signature “eye” window acts as a focal point of the building.

“Beyond its striking architecture and beauty, the Patient Care Center has greatly improved the operations of the eye care center,” said Davis. “In the short time we’ve occupied the building, we’ve recognized how the floor plan encourages collaboration among faculty across a variety of specialty areas. Patients will appreciate the logical, efficient flow as they move throughout the facility.”

“To accommodate UMSL’s patient care, educational and outreach needs, we designed the building to be highly flexible,” said Paul Whitson, AIA, senior vice president and regional leader of Healthcare at HOK in St. Louis. “Same-handed and equally sized treatment rooms will enable it to adapt to future changes within the healthcare industry.”

Approximately 13,000-square feet of space in the Patient Care Center is programmed for future community partnership opportunities, which might include an urgent care or dental clinic.

Funding for the center came partially from a supplemental fee assessed to optometry students. Additional funds came from internal reallocations within the college and campus reserves.

The improvements to the College of Optometry are the first phase of planned capital improvements on UMSL’s campus. Future construction phases could include the addition of a 200,000-sq.-ft. facility to co-locate all teaching, research and administrative functions for the College of Optometry.

The grand opening for the building will take place Nov. 4 from 3 to 5 p.m. The ceremony will include a ribbon cutting and short program.

HOK is a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm. Through a network of 23 offices worldwide, HOK provides design excellence and innovation to create places that enrich people’s lives and help clients succeed. DesignIntelligence consistently ranks HOK as a leader in sustainable, high-performance design and technology innovation.

HOK’s WorkPlace practice, in partnership with the UK Chapter of CoreNet Global, has released a new report that studies the impact of coworking from a corporate real estate (CRE) perspective.

Coworking is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the commercial real estate market. The new report, Coworking: A Corporate Real Estate Perspective, examines the drivers of coworking from the demand and supply sides, the industry risks and implications for corporate real estate, as well as information about the owners, coworkers and centers.

The HOK/CoreNet Global Coworking report highlights the ideas that changing business priorities and the need to attract talented people, reduce real estate costs, improve speed to innovation and increase productivity are driving corporations to consider different workplace models, including on- and off-site coworking.

“Although coworking space makes up less than one percent of the world’s office space, it represents an important workforce trend and highlights the strong desire of today’s employees to have workplace choices, community and flexibility,” said Kay Sargent, director of WorkPlace at HOK. “Driven by demand factors, including next-generation work styles and the desire for real estate portfolio agility, C-suite executives from human resources, operations, real estate and finance are increasingly interested in how coworking affects their work practices and policies—and how they need to design, manage and operate their workplaces.”

Key findings from the Coworking report also include:

The coworking concept is evolving to comprise accelerators, incubators and maker spaces. It reaches beyond office settings to include college campuses, retail locations, hotels and libraries.

The impact of coworking spaces on CRE includes providing new uses for older properties and for underutilized spaces in existing facilities.

The lowest engagement levels are found in employees who never work remotely. The highest employee engagement levels occur among those who work remotely less than 20% of the time.

Many coworking centers emerged in a time of high unemployment and low rents. But 54% of the coworkers will leave a specific location in less than a year. The high turnover and tenant instability challenge coworking centers to maintain profitability. They are vulnerable to market conditions and new competitors.

“For corporate occupiers and other real estate professionals, the coworking trend is worth watching, exploring and testing,” said Curtis Knapp, director of consulting for HOK. “It is a way to add flexibility to the portfolio and help match the ebb and flow of supply and demand. It can be one solution to the many challenges posed by the changing nature of both work and worker.”

HOK’s annual Pedal for the Cause cycling team raised more than $4,000 for cancer awareness and research at Siteman Cancer Center and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The Sept. 24-25, 2016 ride was led by Tom Bahr, an avid cyclist and an architect on HOK’s design team for the Campus Renewal Project for BJC Barnes-Jewish Hospital, BJC St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. HOK’s eight-person team cycled more than 140 combined miles. Bahr was joined on the team by the three managing principals of HOK’s St. Louis office—Lance Cage, Eli Hoisington and Angelo Arzano—as well as Alyse Garbisch, Gabe Garrett, Tim Gaidis and Bob Schwartz.

“This ride gave us an opportunity to raise money for St. Louis-based funding for cancer research, discovery grants and clinical care,” said Arzano. “And we enjoyed seeing each other outside of the office to participate in a fun, healthy activity. It was a win-win for all of us.”